


The Autumn House

by AmazingGraceless



Category: Practical Magic (1998), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Amas Veritas, F/M, I’m really not kidding, Pay attention to that major character death warning y’all, Reylo Kids, There is a happy ending though I swear, halloween spookiness, necromancy ensues, no age gap this time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:40:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 12,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26543857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmazingGraceless/pseuds/AmazingGraceless
Summary: It started with Padme Amidala. Legend said that anyone who dares love a Skywalker will die young.Ben Solo is the youngest of the children of Han and Leia, and the one hardest hit by the death that drives them to the Autumn House, where his aunt and uncle live and practice magic. As he grapples with the loss of his father, the abandonment of his mother, and the knowledge of the curse that killed him, Ben is determined to never fall in love.He casts a spell wishing for a girl that couldn’t possibly exist. Little does he know that she wished for him, too.
Relationships: Han/Leia, Jaina Solo/Jagged Fel, Jaina Solo/Kyp Durron, Luke Skywalker/Mara Jade, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 40
Kudos: 47





	1. The Senator’s Children

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StallingGem](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StallingGem/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Solo children arrive at the Autumn House a week after their father’s death, and learn of the curse that killed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Allusion to a miscarriage at the line “there was always sorrow” to “he picked himself up off the dirt.” Mentions and discussion of the death of a father.

Ben sat on the front steps of the Autumn House, his father’s dog sitting protectively by him, raising his hackles whenever the seagulls ventured too close. From here, he could see his father’s beloved car in the driveway, already looking sad and dilapidated.

His mother paid to have it transported here—he knew it made her too sad to look at it, much less drive it. Because if she did, she would think of the reason why they were coming to the Autumn House anyway.

Behind his father’s car, he could see his mother’s car. His aunt and uncle’s were in the garage, the maze of junk and gears where his uncle liked to tinker with his car and his wife’s, as well as whatever else he could get his hands on.

His mother’s was done in the Alderaanian style, after one of the adoptive families that helped raise her as a child. Shiny, white, and polished, it was sleek and powerful. Just like his mother.

If he wanted to, he could close his eyes and smell the salt of the sea and forget. He could try to forget why Chewbacca followed him around and not his father. He could try to forget why he and his three siblings had worn only black over the past week. He could try to forget the reason why they were here.

But he couldn’t, because then he would miss the moment he knew was coming soon, when his mother would finally tell Luke and Mara that they’d been generous enough, but she had to get back to work. When she would leave without a fuss—as she always had, rationalizing that it would only make them miss her more. But both he and his mother would know that she wouldn’t be coming back.

He wanted to understand. He wanted to be patient, knowing that this was the place where it had all started. He knew this was where she had lost three sets of parents. He knew that Chewbacca and the Falcon and four kids with Han’s smile and him with Han’s smile was too much. He knew that here was magic, and with it the unspoken word, the untold story that everyone knew all the same.

He wanted to be the too sensitive, too quiet child his mother had always adored for his ability to sympathize and somehow understand.

But he couldn’t deny his anger. It boiled within him, threatening to overflow and lash out at everyone and everything.

Because one week ago, everything had been okay. One week ago, they had been on a long-deserved vacation to the beach.

Seven days ago, his father died.

* * *

He remembered the moment with perfect clarity. All of them had been in the water, even him. He’d been tentative about it, but somehow Han always knew how to gently push his son into doing the daring.

There was no politics, no pager beeping, no shenanigans with the Falcon. Just a perfect summer day, with everyone together.

Then his mother’s smile melted, giving way to white-faced horror.

“No,” she murmured, reaching a hand to her ear. “No!”

“What’s wrong, Your Worship?” Han liked to use the somewhat mocking nickname to tease his wife. “Forgot to take an earring out, or—“

When he got a good luck at the look on her face, the smirk on his faltered.

Every one of the children could sense something was wrong.

“We need to leave, then,” Han said. “We can escape this thing—“

“Han, no, I don’t know if it’s possible—“ she reached for him, desperate in a way that Ben had never thought was possible for his mother.

“Come on kids, we’re leaving,” Han said. “We can go check out the fair, eat as much funnel cake as we like—“

When his father reached the sand, that was when Ben heard it. The ticking, like a clock and a beetle’s noises. He realized that this was what his mother had heard. He rushed out of the water, seeing it just before it approached his father.

Han fell to the ground, and the beetle disappeared.

“Daddy!” Jaina splashed wildly as she ran out of the ocean. “Daddy!”

“Let me through,” Leia ordered, and she reached down to feel her husband’s pulse. Ben recognized it, as she had taken the pains to teach her children life-saving skills at a young age.

It wasn’t until now that Ben realized why.

“It was the beetle,” he said quietly. “Maybe it was poisonous—“

“It’s not poisonous.” Leia closed her eyes. She seemed to sink within herself. “It was a deathwatch beetle. They signal deaths in our family. When you hear the deathwatch beetle ticking—it means there’s no going back.”

That was when Ben realized that his father would never wake from the dunes again.

* * *

“I have to get back to work, I can’t stay here.”

Ben was brought to attention by his mother’s voice. She was a Senator and her voice rang clear and true through any surface—even enchanted walls such as these.

“But the kids need you,” Luke argued. “And you could use the time, I’m sure—“

“I don’t need time for sympathy, I never have,” Leia replied. “And the kids don’t need me, they spent most of their time with Han. They have you and Mara now, and you’ll teach them magic, finally. They’ll be excited about that, and they’ll forget about me.”

“Surely you don’t believe that—“

“It doesn’t matter what I believe, Luke.” Leia’s voice was firm. “Time doesn’t stop for anybody. I’ve got bills to pass, work to be done. I can’t stay. I’m sorry.”

There was a pause. “I know. Do you want to tell the kids goodbye, then?”

“No.” Ben could picture his mother shaking her head. “It’s better this way. Besides, they’re used to it.”

Ben never had his vision go red with rage before.

When it cleared, Leia had walked right by him and Chewy, and was headed for her car.

“Hey!” Ben stood up as he shouted.

Leia whirled around, and for moment, he saw guilt on her face—but it hardened to resolve.

“Keep a hand on that dog, Ben, I don’t want to run him over on accident.”

“You’re leaving? Without saying goodbye?”

“It’s just politics, Ben, I’ll be back when there’s a recess around Thanksgiving—“

“So that’s it?” His voice grew. “You’re just abandoning us?”

“You’re staying with Luke and Mara.” Leia’s expression softened. “You’ll learn magic here, just like we’ve always been able to do. You’ll like it here—I grew up here, and while there’s things I don’t miss, there’s a part of me that will always miss theAutumn House.”

“Then stay! Stay for your children, for us!” Ben was crying as he shouted.

But that didn’t move Leia, at least outwardly.

“I’m sorry, Ben.”

That was all she said before she got in the car, before she left. Ben had fallen to the ground, trying to chase her. But he hadn’t even gotten past the picket fence and charming gate. He lay in the grass and the dirt, Chewy by his side, until it was dark and Mara had come out to call him to dinner.

“Ben?”

There was always a sorrow when Mara called for him. He had been partially named after Luke’s teacher and the boy Mara had desperately wanted to be born.

He picked himself up off the dirt. “Coming, Aunt Mara.”

His aunt was as tough as nails, one look with her emerald eyes told you that much.

But they were softer now.

“It’ll be okay,” she promised. “We’ll teach you magic, and there will be no bedtimes, no rules, and chocolate cake for breakfast.”

But Ben didn’t want any of that. He wanted his mother. And he desperately wanted his father back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to StallingGem for inspiring me to write this! I thought it might be nice to have some witchy fun! Just as a note, the age gap between Rey and Ben doesn’t exist in this AU, because it just didn’t fit. So they’re the same age now. The Solo kids birth order is the twins (Jaina first) then Anakin, and finally Ben.


	2. Amas Veritas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben casts a love spell in the iconic scene you all were waiting for.

The next nine years brought a new normal with it and a sort of peace. Despite Mara’s prickly demeanor with customers and mysterious past, she’d been every bit the lenient and fun guardian paired with Luke that she’d promised to be.

Occasionally, they did have chocolate cake for breakfast, and there were no rules, except for one. But that will be discussed later. As for their everyday lives, there were no rules. They ate dinners outside, and let the cats get everywhere, especially Artoo, who could not be deterred from anything if he wanted it. They made and wore costumes whenever they liked. And they learned magic.

All of them were flowing with raw, natural magic that shone like the sun whenever they got the chance to display it. And they displayed it often, learning to levitate feathers and light candles without a match.

But there was more to it then that. There was the matter of tending to your herbs and supplies, to waiting for the perfect celestial alignment.

And Ben took to that part better than his siblings, save Jacen when he managed the patience.

He was more of an academic and a scholar than his older brother, and he had enjoyed learning in school before all of this ha happened. And those skills and interests were applicable to the practice of magic.

Of course, the next nine years were not all idyllic times spent in the Autumn House on the coast of rural Massachusetts island.

For the children had to go to school there, and they learned quickly how the Skywalkers were viewed in this town. They were taunted and shunned by the other children who whispered that they were witches, that they brought only bad luck and misery. Some would even dare to throw rocks at the Solos and their cat familiars or Chewy from the other side of the white picket gate.

Unlike his siblings, Ben had no reservations about paying them back in curses. Mild misfortunes, for sure. But nothing that would get him in trouble, mind you. He was still the sensitive boy, deep down, who never wanted to hurt anybody, but that boy was buried beneath six feet of rage and sorrow.

There was also the story, the reason their father had died. And it had started in this very house.

Padme Amidala was the beginning.

The Autumn House had been bought by the Naberries as a lakeside estate when they first arrived to America centuries ago, but had been renovated and given as a wedding gift and a dowry to Anakin and Padme. This was the place where they were supposed to escape Anakin’s past and become a family.

But then Padme had died in childbirth. Lost the will to live, the doctors had said. Because it was the sixties, they ignored how she screamed and fought to live. But there were rumors, from the very beginning, as to what had happened in that house.

The next to go were Beru and Lars. They had come in, with Bail and Breha, to help raise the twins. It had been alright, until a mysterious fire killed Aunt Beru in the kitchen. Lars soon followed out of grief and heartache.

Breha went next, as she had heart problems all her life. Bail had also died of grief.

Many of Leia and Luke’s boyfriends and girlfriends had met tragic ends before Han and Mara. But even Han had not been able to best the curse.

The reason they were cursed, no one knew. But the way it went, they were certain, was this: when they loved someone and loved in return, their loved one would die when they heard the ticking of the deathwatch beetle.

How much time they had was variable. And who was to say that the curse wasn’t the reason Anakin had no father,and for the death of Anakin’s stepfather?

No one knew for certain.

But what Ben did know was that if he were to ever fall in love, he would fate that woman to die.

One night, when the full moon was out with a circle around it, signifying trouble, he entered the conservatory with a spellbook under his arm.

The only rule in the Autumn House was that one particular tome of the grimoires and spellbooks collected over the years was off-limits. It was a black book with silver and amethyst inlaid, and it was said to be a tome of the darkest magic, retrieved by Luke and Mara from the lair of an evil sorcerer.Ben ignored that tome, as he was told, and instead took one of the ordinary leather bound ones.

He combined elements of a standard love spell and a conjuring spell, and got to work on a spell of his own creation. Ben would make sure that he was never like his mother, that he would never leave his own children because of a broken heart.

It was under the moonlight, as he plucked herbs he had grown for weeks and started naming attributes of an imaginary woman that Jaina came through the door.

“You’re doing magic, then?” Jaina leaned against the frame.

Ben ignored her, plucking a bit of witch-hazel. “She’ll have hazel eyes, and they will look like the sun rises in them every morning.”

He continued to a blossom with three petals. “She’ll wear her hair with three buns.”

Jaina giggled, trying to imagine the hairstyle. “I thought you didn’t want to fall in love, Ben.”

“I don’t,” Ben informed her with the stiffness only a fourteen-year-old could put into his voice. “But that’s the point. This girl doesn’t exist. If she doesn’t exist, I won’t fall in love, and no one will die, and I won’t have a broken heart.”

Jaina looked at him with sympathy. At nineteen, she already had a fiancé, one that he was certain she was planning to elope with any day now. A military pilot with the personality of cardboard, known as Jagged Fel. Ben had wondered why she would consider loving _that_ to be worth his eventual death.

“You can’t lock your heart away forever, and you shouldn’t,” Jaina warned as she sauntered into the conservatory balcony, crossing her arms over her chest. “Let me tell you a few things I’ve learned, since we came here, Ben. Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck—“

“I know all of that,” Ben complained. He picked a frond from a beach grass plant. “She’ll be tall enough to look me in the eye.”

“Good luck with that, beanpole.” Jaina laughed. “Maybe this girl doesn’t exist. But that’s not my point. There’s one more thing: fall in love whenever you can.”

“But isn’t it cruel, when they’ll die because of us?”

Jaina hesitated. “Jag knows the risks. So did Dad, and so does Aunt Mara. But they loved anyway. Because it’s worth it. You’ll understand, when you meet your dream girl.”

“I won’t,” Ben reminded her as he continued around the conservatory. He took a spotted lily. “She’ll have freckles, but they’ll be really faint. She can fix any car, plane, boat, or motorcycle. She loves animals. She can kick my ass.”

He then picked a spring of rosemary. “And she’ll have magic just as strong as mine.”

He placed all of the herbs into his potion, and got to work. Then, under the full moon, he offered the results into the moon, forming them into a little shower of petals that disappeared into the night.

* * *

Little did he know that miles and miles away, on the front porch of a manor in the middle of a desert, a girl his age saw petals descend from the sky. She reached out, catching them into her calloused, grease-stained hands.

She looked back up at the moon. Someone had wished for her, she knew it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jaina’s speech in the middle is the ending quote from the book and the movie.


	3. The Witch-Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which one of Ben’s first fears arrive; in other words, Rey arrives.

Ben was nineteen years old when she arrived. In the five years that had come and gone since he cast Amas Veritas, the Autumn House had become a little more empty. Jaina and Jag had long eloped, and they were often off on tours in the Air Force. They wrote whenever they could, but that was never as often as the family liked.

Jacen had gone to join their mother in Washington. But not because he had the same drive or passion for politics as she did, but because he had fallen in love with an upstart intern of hers with red Viking braids, fierce gray eyes, and one arm. He took classes for his philosophy degree at the local college and eked out a living using his magical talents for hire, in hopes of someday moving into academia as a “proper” job.

As for Anakin, he stayed home, as did Ben, working in the Jade Shadow, Luke’s magic shop. Unlike Ben, Anakin also was studying at the community college in hopes of eventually transferring elsewhere, but with a degree in computers instead of philosophy.

He had fallen for one of the few locals who frequented their store, a chatty blonde who never wore shoes if she could help it.Tahiri often came over for dinner, and admired the herd of cats Luke and Mara had acquired as familiars over the years.

All was well, Ben supposed.

He had not decided yet where he would go to university or what for, but he was considering medieval history, as he had learned much about witch-hunts over the past nine years since his father died.

But he had taken a gap year, as Luke had suggested, and he had time to figure it out.

He worked in the magic shop, secretly helping the town that hated him and his family with all of the problems that they couldn’t solve through conventional means. If he could forget who was asking him, he didn’t mind doing little spells and brews for hire. Well, except for love spells.

Ben hated love spells. While he had the set of dictionaries in the house all read and faithfully memorized at a young age, he was certain there was not enough words in the English language or the Latin one to describe his hatred for the cursed things.

It was the same story again, and again. They always came in at sundown. A woman wanted another woman’s husband, or some variant of it. They were mad and sick with desire, and would offer some twisted thing they did as proof of their urgency, of their ‘love.’ They would writhe against the countertop, begging Ben or Luke or Anakin or Mara for help. And they would do it, but only the lightest charms. Because the Skywalkers knew what power love wielded.

Some would come back, begging for stronger spells. But Ben was glad to refuse them. They never knew what power they wanted, what they were treating as a toy.

And they were always the biggest hypocrites, too, the PTA moms who told their children to stay away from the witches, the ones who dared to say nasty things to children they barely knew.

The day that she arrived, Ben knew trouble was coming. There had been a circle around the moon the night before. Then in the morning, a red sky, like the sailors’ adage. It had otherwise been a beautiful fall morning, one where Ben would take a slow hour to saunter over to the coffee shop and enjoy a mug over a newspaper from the mainland before coming back.

But the afternoon had turned bleak and dreary.

It was raining so hard that the roof sounded like a drum, and all customers came in soaked, splattering mud everywhere despite their best efforts.

Ben was relieved when he saw that the clock was ticking towards six, when they closed up shop for the night and could go home.He wanted to go home and go to his room, listen to music and enjoy pumpkin cider in piece, with herbs added for warmth, tranquility, ease of mind. He wanted to read the new book of poetry Jacen had sent him, that Jacen had written whilewaiting for Tenel Ka’s sessions to end.

He did not want to be here, dreading that a sundown woman with a love potion would walk through his door.

Perhaps it was luck or fate, but a woman did walk through his door—but not one that he expected.

Clad in a soaked-through, mud-stained lavender hoodie, tendrils of her dark hair were plastered to her faintly-freckled place. He felt his heart in his throat when he saw the three bumps of her hairstyle, her determined and bright hazel eyes.

“You’re the witches, right?”

Ben had always liked British accents. Still, his heart was already breaking in anticipation of this girl, this woman, who was the one he’d conjured with Amas Veritas, but was surely about to ask for a love potion—

“Yes, we do spells. We’re witch people.” He inwardly cursed his own awkwardness, and yet it might save her—

“I have nowhere else to turn to.”

That’s how it always started.

She opened her palms—a trail of golden sparks appeared, consuming themselves as quickly as they appeared.

Ben blinked. That was not what he had been expected.

“You need a teacher,” Ben realized.

“Yes, good, you can keep up.” She closed her hands into fists. “Can you, or someone in your family teach me?”

That was the point at which Luke, Mara, and Anakin halted what they were doing and came over to help the woman standing in their shop.

“You’ve come here looking for a teacher?” Luke asked gently. 

“There’s something inside me,” she said. “Something that’s always been there. And now it’s awake. And I need help.”

Luke and Mara exchanged a glance.

“You have a name?” Mara asked.

She hesitated. “Just Rey.”

“Well, just Rey, do you like enchiladas?” Luke asked.

“Yes?” She tilted her head, confused.

“Excellent, you’ll like dinner tonight.” He clapped her on the shoulder. “I take it you need a place to live, to work?”

“I was planning on finding somewhere else so I won’t be a burden—“

“Don’t worry about it,” Mara assured her. “House has been too empty since the twins left.”

“Well, thank you.” Rey was taken aback. “Thank you so much.”

And so the Skywalkers got to work on closing up shop. But what no one knew was that Ben was afraid. Because the girl had been real, and he knew what would come next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The passage about the sundown women was lifted from the book version of Practical Magic, and toned down in the more graphic details.


	4. Blame It on the Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which love has finally come for Ben Solo and he’s kind of a jerk about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mentions of underage drinking. Midnight margaritas have arrived! (I shouldn’t need to tell you this, but don’t drink if you’re underage, kids)

Ben hid himself away for the first month Rey was there. The first night, she helped Mara cook the enchiladas. He had lingered in the stairway as he heard them both sing a Stevie Nicks song, and he realized that he couldn’t do this.

“I have to work on deciphering a spell from the old grimoires that were shipped to us last month,” Ben said when he managed to get himself in the kitchen doorway. He couldn’t even look at Rey. He wouldn’t let himself get attached to her, wouldn’t give her a chance to fall in love with him. “I won’t be able to come down to dinner.”

“Oh, really?” Rey sounded disappointed, and he hated it, he knew that his stupid love spell as a teenager had worked too well. . .

Mara, on the other hand, always had an amazing ability to detect bullshit, for which she had no tolerance. He did see her green glare.

“We eat as a family, Ben.”

“I’m not hungry, I think I got a bad sandwich at the deli.” He was about to turn around and leave when Chewy burst through the kitchen door, bounding right over to Rey.

“Hello, boy!” Her hazel eyes lit up and she knelt down to pet the dog’s shaggy fur. “Who’s a good boy? What’s your name? What kind of boy are you?”

“Chewbacca,” Ben said quietly. “He belonged to my father. He’s an Alaskan Malamute, we think.”

Rey looked up at him, and as much as he’d wanted to avoid this, their eyes met. Her expression sobered with a sort of understanding.

“He likes you,” Ben admitted. _Traitor_.

“That’s because he’s a good boy,” Rey said, eyes lighting up again. “Best boy, who’s a good boy?”

Sensing his chance to escape, Ben silently disappeared up the steps and into his room in the attic. As the rain came down, he put on one of his dad’s lecture and got to that poetry book since he had been translating the grimoires during the quiet periods at work. He ignored the raucous laughter downstairs and the knock on his door, and didn’t open it till it was dark and the house had long been quiet, towards the Devil’s Hour.

He did not need to venture to the fridge, however, for right by his door was a plate of enchiladas with a note. No sign of Chewy, however.

He took them into his room and read the note.

_Guess love finally hit you, Benjamin. Good luck avoiding her forever. —Mara_

He sighed. He appreciated the thought, but he was going to make sure she didn’t fall for him. Even if he was working against his own magic.

* * *

So began the new life. Chewbacca slept in Rey’s room now, and followed her around instead of Ben, although he occasionally wanted Ben to throw the ball for him or take him for a ride in the Falcon. Which Ben begrudgingly did because that dog surely carried some magic of his own, given how long he’d been around, and you didn’t give up on all that was left of your dad.

He avoided the kitchen and took his meals elsewhere when possible, spending all his time at home shut up in his room.He especially avoided the junk room on the third floor that had been cleared out to be Rey’s room.

At his job, he was surly and only spoke to Rey when he had to, watching somewhat enviously as she learned about magical things with Luke or laughed and joked around with Anakin.

Mara and Anakin in particular had tried their best to lure Ben back into their lives, but Ben had become a master at escaping conversations he did not want to have.

Mara finally got to him when he was holding over the shop until Anakin and Rey returned from a lunch break.

“You should tell her,” Mara said, arms crossed over her chest. “Because of your stupid little love spell, she feels drawn to you, but you’re pushing her away. I promise, it’s not like the sundown women—“

“It’s not about that,” Ben said quietly. “I don’t want anyone to die because I loved them.”

Mara’s gaze softened. “I know. Your dad knew, Leia told him not long after she met him, one of her many reasons to try and dissuade him.”

“And it didn’t work, did it?”

Mara laughed. “For a while, it almost did. Your old man tended to run from what scared him. In the end, he loved your mom too much to keep running.”

“And look where it got him,” Ben said bitterly.

“But he was happy, right until the end,” Mara pointed out. “So was Leia. Yes, what happened in the end was painful. But you can’t run from everything that hurts in life. Sometimes, it’s worth the little things.”

Ben said nothing, checking the bills in the cash register.

Mara shifted, toying with the pearls around her neck that were incongruous with her leather jacket and practical outfit. “I wasn’t the first woman in Luke’s life. I’d even seen what had happened to some of the women before me. Chell-Loni, Callista, Camie, Shara. I knew the risks, when I married him. Do you know why?”

Ben raised his head. “Why?”

“Because Luke is worth it,” Mara said, a faint smile on her face. “I grew up the apprentice of a dark warlock. I easily could’ve followed that path, as a dark witch.”

“But then you met Luke.”

“I did.” Her smile deepened in its sincerity, there was a light blush to her cheeks. “He showed me what my life could be. That I had a choice, as to my legacy and as to everything. We didn’t have much, but we built a life together. And it’s the best thing I’ve ever known.”

She then sobered again. “What I’m saying is, talk to Rey. Tell her the truth, about everything. Let her make her choice—and if she wants to open her heart to you, let her. Because you might be surprised by what you get.”

Ben sighed. “I’ll consider it.”

“You’re just as stubborn as Han and Leia.” Mara smiled. “Now help me with the stock of hair-growth potions.”

* * *

That same night, as Ben ventured down for a scavenged meal, he heard Anakin and Rey speak. He hid from view, standing by the wall blocking the staircase from the kitchen as he listened, hoping to avoid Rey still.

“He’s such an arsehole,” Rey muttered. “I mean, I know he’s your brother, but honestly! I don’t understand how someone as mean as him has such a nice dog and such a beautiful car.”

Anakin laughed. “Well, Ben’s always been a grump. But he’s not usually like this.”

“Is it because he hates me?”

“No, not at all.” Anakin sighed. “If anything, he likes you. A lot.”

Ben internally groaned. As much as he appreciated the gesture, it wasn’t what he wanted.

“Then why does he treat me like he hates me?”

Anakin sighed. “It’s a long story. And it’s his. Look outside—it’s a clear night with the full moon. A night for revealing secrets. I think if you asked him, he would tell you the truth.”

* * *

That was why he wasn’t surprised when late in the night, there was a knock at his door. He sighed, looking up from his personal grimoire he was copying spells into, and opened the door.

Standing there was Rey, holding two midnight margaritas. Ben noticed that one was non-alcoholic, although that had never stopped Luke and Mara before. 

“The rest of them are downstairs, and Tahiri came over,” Rey said. “I thought you might want one.”

“Thanks,” Ben said stiffly. He was about to shut the door, when he thought back to his conversation with Mara, and hers with Anakin.

And seeing the moon in her hazel eyes, illuminating her freckles, he knew he couldn’t say no to this.

They stood there a moment in silence, neither wanting to speak first, but both holding so much to say.

“Do you want to sit out on the roof?” Ben was finally able to break the spell on them both.

Rey hesitated. “I’d like that.”

Ben opened the large window that opened to the slant that hung over the fourth floor of the house.

“I used to come out here all the time with Chewy, after my father died,” he admitted as he helped her down. “It’s study, reinforced with charms.”

“I see.” Rey sipped from her drink. “It’s a beautiful view of the ocean.”

“It is,” Ben agreed.

“Why have you been so awful to me?” Rey was quick to strike, like a rattlesnake. Just as sharp.

Ben sighed. “It’s a long story.”

“I like long stories.”

“It starts with my grandmother,” Ben began. “She married my grandfather, a powerful witch known for his exploits against monsters. They were to move into this house and start a family. but she died in childbirth, under mysterious circumstances. A curse.”

“How did you know?” Rey asked.

“Because anyone who dared to love a Skywalker since has died, sooner or later,” Ben explained. “My parents’ adoptive parents died, many of Luke’s girlfriends died, and so did Mom’s boyfriends, and then my dad.”

“So you’re cursed. Is that it?” Rey raised her eyebrows.

“There’s more.” Ben took a sip of his margarita. “When I was fourteen, I decided that I wasn’t going to fall in love with anyone, that no one would die because of me. So I cast a spell, wishing to fall in love with a perfect girl, who couldn’t exist.”

Rey’s eyes widened in recognition. “You mean—“

“All you feel, this bond between us?” Ben gestured between them. “Just magic. Nothing more.”

“No, no, you don’t understand.” Rey reached into her lavender hoodie, and pulled out white flower petals that Ben recognized immediately. They hadn’t wilted or changed at all. “I wished for you, too.”

Their eyes met, and under the full moon, the allure of their bond was too strong.

“Don’t be afraid,” she whispered. “I feel it too.”

With that, she leaned in, and everything was forever changed with a shared kiss under the moonlight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is based off of the Bob Seger song. The song Mara and Rey are cooking to is “Crystal” as covered by Stevie Nicks, which is the song that was playing in the original Amas Veritas scene. It’s also one of my very favorite songs.


	5. Wormwood and Asphodel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a happy life shatters completely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the major character death starts kicking in, so mind those tags.

From that night on,Ben loved recklessly and without abandon. He rejoined his family at the dinner table, now talking freely with Rey about anything and everything. He lingered in the kitchen with Rey and Mara, helping with the food. Then he would take Chewbacca and Rey to the Jade Shadow in the Falcon, taking the long and scenic route around the coast of the island.

He and Rey would take the same lunch hour and explore the cafes, ignoring the whispers that she would meet the same untimely fate as others, ignoring the whispers that she was a witch with a darker power than even the Skywalkers. It was easy to drown them out in each other’s eyes.

In the afternoons, they would come home and Ben would teach her all the magic he knew on the conservatory. She would grow herbs and he would copy down spells. He would admire how a plant never died or withered under her watch, and she was envious of his beautiful handwriting.

“It’s better than chicken scratch,” she would confess.

“It’s calligraphy. My mother taught me.”

“I never see your mother.”

“She doesn’t visit often. Only on Christmas. Politics never stops.”

They would dance in the moonlight on the rooftop, or kiss or talk about anything and nothing at all.

And for a time, he and the Skywalkers were happy.

Jacen and Tenel Ka visited on Halloween with regards from Leia and congratulations for the newest couple. They also sported engagement rings on their fingers, not that they advertised it. Ben supposed it was some petty political reason, but he did not pry into their reasons or acknowledge them.

Jaina returned home not long after, a widow and with a honorable discharge from the Air Force. She was still open to love, especially from a childhood friend from their home in a time long before they came to the Autumn House.

“I see you finally took my advice,” she said with a smile.

Leia finally visited when Christmas came, and she mourned with Jaina and was happy for Jacen and Tenel Ka’s impending secret marriage, and the relationship that had developed between Ben and Rey.

And all was well.

That wasn’t to say that sometimes Rey and Ben didn’t fight, as they were both stubborn and determined to be right. But they were quick to talk it out and make it up to one another.

And marriage was already on the table.

They were waiting for the right time, as to not impend on Jacen and Tenel Ka’s marriage.

But that time never came.

* * *

The happiest year Ben had known came to an end when Mara died.

It was the summer right before the first anniversary of when Rey came to visit. It had been unexpected, she’d just died while in the kitchen. One moment, she had been making a chocolate cake for breakfast, and the next Ben found her on the ground, eyes glassy and her face pale and lifeless.

The funeral had been a surprisingly large affair. She had no family by blood that arrived, as she had been taken from them and raised by a dark sorcerer as an infant. But her and Luke’s network of friends, other witches, wizards, magicians, and sorcerers.

It was the best send off she could have possibly been given.

Ben and Rey walked along the shoreline afterward. They had both been quiet, and Ben could tell that Rey was full of thoughts and things to say that they couldn’t around others.

“I can’t believe she’s gone,” Ben admitted. “She’s lasted about as long as Beru and Breha did. And Beru lasted the longest.”

“I can’t either,” Rey agreed. “The curse. . . It almost didn’t seem real, before now.”

Ben frowned. “Rey, what are you saying?”

Her hazel eyes widened in panic. “I wasn’t about to suggest a breakup. About the opposite, in fact.”

She paused, staring out at the Atlantic Ocean. “I wonder if it isn’t the bloodline, but it’s the house. There’s deep magic in the walls of that house. I can feel it. I wonder if the history, of whatever caused the curse, if it lingers there.”

“My father never lived in the house,” he pointed out.

“I know that,” Rey admitted. “But I wonder if we could run away, to a place where no one has ever heard of Skywalkers, where we could start a family and maybe live without a curse.”

“You want to elope?” Ben felt relief at first. Then he realized how angry and upset his remaining family would be. “I’m not sure.”

“Let’s think about it, then.” Rey looked to him, and took his hand into hers. “But it feels unlucky to me, to stay here with her gone.”

* * *

It was three days later when they packed up in the Falcon and left, taking Chewy with them.


	6. Suburbia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ben and Rey try to run from destiny, and the curse changes the rules.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last major character death of the fic. It’s exactly who you’ve been thinking/dreading it was and I’m sorry.

They settled in a small suburban town in the middle of America’s heartland. They took a destination wedding and honeymoon in the Bahamas first, however.

They settled into jobs and classes. Ben worked at the local bookstore when he wasn’t working on his degree, and Rey worked at a mechanic’s. And both sold spells when the right people came asking.

They lived in a little yellow house with a pink kitchen and a back porch with a swing on it. There were little touches about it that reminded them enough of the Autumn House without it being painful.

They sent regular letters and postcards to the family in Washington and Massachusetts, and they sent all proper gifts every Christmas.

It was a year later when they brought home their firstborn, a daughter named Maura, a name inspired by the woman they both mourned. Two years after that they had another daughter named Solana.

Ben noticed right away that Maura was like him as a child. She was shy, painfully quiet, and noticed and sensed everything. Ben suspected she had what was called the second sight—a sensitivity and ability to see glimpses of the future, the past, and the dead, things talented witches spent their whole lives training to do.

And it would come to Maura so easily.

Solana was filled with a sunny exuberance and aura that refilled others upon being in the vicinity. She shined bright while her sister burned cold.

Both had their own magic, and Ben and Rey took the time to teach them in their home. And they would tell stories of the Autumn House, but never of the curse in hopes that they would not tempt fate.

The children hoped to go, to visit the relatives they only knew through postcards and Christmas presents, but Ben and Rey pushed off these requests with promises of later, stretching off infinitely into the future.

But what they did not know was that fate could not be so easily tricked or waylaid.

Then again, there was many things then that neither Ben nor Rey knew.

* * *

It was a rainy night, September 22nd. It had been exactly sixteen years since Rey had come into the lives of the Skywalkers. Seeing the sky outside had reminded her of the journey she had undertaken so long ago.

She never spoke much of her past. She had whispered secrets to Ben on those nights when they still would climb onto the roof of their suburban home, and he knew more than anyone.

He knew about her parents, and her fond memories she’d once had of them. Her mother doing her hair. Her father carving little toys for her. But her less fond ones, too. Like how they drank a lot, how they also lived in a house with ghosts. How she had to help them work in a junkyard for a man she greatly disliked by the name of Unkar Plutt. How she couldn’t stand blue cars because her parents had driven away in one when she was fourteen,not long before petals came drifting from the sky.

The night she had left, she sensed trouble. There was a circle around the moon. Her mother had told her once it was a sign of bad luck. Rey had packed everything she owned and left the manor that had belonged to her father’s family, and made her way to Massachusetts.

This night felt a lot like that night she left. There was an unease that Rey couldn’t shake, the feeling that she had left something behind in that manor that would come to rear its ugly head up into the life she and Ben had built so carefully for themselves.

Ben called ahead—he would be late at the university, working with a colleague on his latest research. Rey had understood, but as the rain came down harder, she had hoped that he might come home sooner after all.

Solana had been doing her practices in her room. She was a dancer, had been signed up for classes since she was five, and she excelled at them, dancing through life. She acted as if nothing was wrong at all. 

Maura, on the other hand, was on edge. She kept looking up from her book when thunder clapped, and she looked as if she were looking at a ghost. Whenever Rey asked what was wrong, however, she mumbled, “nothing” and went back to reading her book.

Rey decided to bake cookies as Mara had taught her, as a way to pass the time. After all, who didn’t need sweets every now and then?

Then she heard it. The deathwatch beetle.

It couldn’t be her time yet, and still—

The ticking grew louder and louder,but Rey was determined to put on a front for her children. She hustled them to bed, realizing that this would be the last night her children remembered of her.

She might have fooled Solana, although the twelve-year-old was clingier than usual.

Maura on the other hand, saw through everything, as she always did.

The way she looked at her, she just knew.

“He isn’t coming, is he?”

“No, your father isn’t coming till much later,” Rey said.

“He won’t stop the beetle, will he?”

“You can hear it?” Rey’s eyes widened in horror.

“It’s too loud.”

Rey remembered what Ben had told her, that he had heard the deathwatch beetle before his father’s death.

“Go to bed, the rain will drown it out, sweetheart.”

She reluctantly went to bed, in the way that told Rey that she wouldn’t sleep until she blacked out completely, and she decided that this would be enough.

She kept a giant spellbook by her side, hoping to squish the deathwatch beetle if she saw it as she finished the cookies.

But she never saw it.

For when the sound grew to its loudest, drowning out Rey’s own heartbeat, it was only silenced with the ring of the telephone.

Confused, she picked it up.

She would drop it seconds later, as she began to sob and the true meaning of Maura words hit her.

Maura knew that her father would die that night.

And Rey knew that somehow, the curse was to blame.


	7. Witchy Woman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which midnight margaritas and magic don’t mix, kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the necromancy tag is about to become relevant!

By the end of the next day, she had packed everything and sold the house, and Rey drove off to Massachusetts. Ben’s body would follow soon after. Which was exactly how Rey wanted it, because she had concocted a plan in the cold night that had passed without Ben by her side.

That morning, she appeared on the doorstep of the Autumn House for the first time in ten years.

Jacen had been waiting for her with a mug of hot chocolate.

“Anakin thought you might be coming,” Jacen said, a somewhat grim smile on his face. “We all sensed it, when Ben. . .”

“Is there room for me and my children here?”

“In your old room, yeah,” Jacen said. “Or the kids could take Ben’s room—“

“It would be best if I took my old room, and the girls took the attic,” Rey said.

“Solana could share with Allana,” Jacen offered.

“That’s right, I saw the announcement,” Rey said. “How old is she now?”

“Nine.” Jacen turned to a sadder smile. “She already can’t remember Tenel Ka.”

“I’m sorry we couldn’t make it to the funeral.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jacen assured her. “You’re here, now. We can talk about everything later. Just for now, let’s get you all settled.”

* * *

The rest of the day was a blur.

Luke had left the house shortly after Ben and Rey did, she learned. He disappeared one night, taking his wife’s car with him, and he never came back. He only sent a letter now and then, assuring the Autumn House that he was still alive.

Rey couldn’t blame him. She couldn’t imagine staying in the same house where all three sets of parents had died, where his wife died and where all of the miscarriages happened. This place carried too many ghosts within its walls.

Tahiri had married Anakin and she had somehow managed to survive.

Tenel Ka had died when Allana was two.

Zekk, Jaina’s childhood friend, had died shortly before their wedding, and she was now on her third husband, an older sorcerer by the name of Kyp Durron.

And the rest of the Solo siblings had somehow found the ability to live in this house happily and ignore the ghosts that lingered.

Rey wished she was as strong as them.

However, she was especially glad to see that Tahiri was still alive, as Rey suspected only Tahiri would be able to help her. She requested her help unpacking in her old room, as she decided the girls would take the attic.

“You wanted to talk to me, didn’t you?” Tahiri asked, shutting the door behind her. “I know that look in your eye, Rey Solo.”

“You’re right,” Rey admitted. “I need your help. I know Ben wasn’t supposed to die, and I can’t let the girls grow up without their father.”

“You want to get the black book, and use it to bring him back,” Tahiri realized.

“If you help me, I’ll bring you back when the time comes,” Rey offered.

“That isn’t even funny.” Tahiri wrinkled her nose. “But I’ll do it. I’m onboard with a little dark magic every now and then.”

“We’ll need to do it late tonight,” Rey said. “I’ll make margaritas for the both of us.”

“Alcohol probably is necessary for both of us to have our judgement impaired enough to go through with this,” Tahiri muttered. “But I’ll do it.”

* * *

It was late that night when they picked up Ben’s coffin and corpse up from the airport. When they came home, they put on Ben’s favorite Eagles album, and prepared margaritas as well as their spell ingredients. They’d locked the door and cloaked the windows with curtains so no one would know what they were doing.

Tahiri was the one who cracked open the coffin to get Ben onto the table. She wrinkled her nose.

“Jesus Christ, Rey, you didn’t tell me he’d been in an accident,” she muttered.

“We’ll fix it, I’m good with healing spells,” Rey promised.

The two women struggled to get him on the table. Rey tried to avoid looking at his marred face.

“I guess I should start with that, then?” Rey realized.

“It would be best, yes.”

Rey was able to heal the marks, removing all but one by his left cheek. She supposed she should just be grateful and save her magic for what was to come. For this would be the greatest undertaking of her life.

Rey unbuttoned his shirt, making a pentagram with whipped cream.

“What? It’s all I could find in the pantry,” Rey admitted when Tahiri gave her a discerning look.

“Whatever, let’s light the candles and get started on the brew,” Tahiri sighed.

They worked tirelessly, brewing potions for them and for Ben, lighting candles, making sigils, and chanting in Latin when appropriate. And then came the final step, the moment of truth.

“Rise, rise, rise!” She and Tahiri chanted, raising their arms into the air.

There was a flash of light, and Rey fell to the floor, unconscious.

She scrambled to the floor to see Ben sit up—but his expression gave her pause.

He recognized her—but something was wrong. Something was unnatural about him. The way he moved, his very face. Rey couldn’t put her finger on what exactly tipped her off.

But all the same, she knelt down to Tahiri, who was unconscious on the kitchen floor.

“Tahiri,” she whispered. “Wake up.”

She shook the girl’s shoulder as her husband rose off of the table, with a stalking gait that reminded Rey of a predator animal.

“Tahiri, come on, wake up—“

She grabbed a broomstick, just in time to block his blow. Tahiri jumped.

“Oh my God,” she muttered. “Where’s my shotgun. . . “

“No time, we screwed something up!” Rey ducked and swatted at Ben, or Not-Ben with her broom. “Stop! It’s me! Your wife? Don’t you remember?”

Tahiri scrambled to her feet. “No, Rey, we didn’t screw up. Just a sec—“

Tahiri cast a spell that pushed back, and Not-Ben went flying through the window. Rey vaulted through it, determined to see this through.

But when Ben stared at her with those almost-yellow eyes, she stopped cold in her tracks on the back porch.

Then before she could stop him, he disappeared in a cloud of shadow and smoke.

“Shit,” Rey muttered as Tahiri caught up.

“That’s at least one word I’d use for it,” Tahiri agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The album is the Eagles’ debut that the characters are listening to in the chapter, which is the same one where the chapter title, “Witchy Woman” is derived from. I like to think that song is playing when Ben rises.


	8. Kylo Ren

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a coven is formed and the secret of the curse is revealed.

Rey and Tahiri stared out the gate for several moments, trying to collect themselves and process what had just happened.

“What the hell do we do now?” Rey asked.

“Well, we can’t leave the kitchen looking like that,” Tahiri said. “And we need to tell the others what just happened.”

Rey had dreaded that answer, but she knew it all the same. “Alright, should you wake them, or I?”’

“I’ll wake Anakin, you go knock on Jaina and Jacen’s doors, tell them it’s a family emergency and to leave the kids out of it,” Tahiri said. “We’ll talk about it in the living room.”

Then with a snap of her fingers, the kitchen restored itself to the same levels of cleanliness Mara had upheld in her lifetime.

Then the two went off to collect the other Solos and spouses to discuss what to do next.

* * *

Anakin let out a low whistle, leaning back in his favorite armchair. “That’s a new level of trouble, I’ll admit.”

“I can’t believe both of you were stupid enough to open that book.” Jaina shook her head. “You were reckless, and you knew that the book was filled with the darkest of magics. There’s consequence to that kind, and it won’t be pretty, whatever comes next.”

“Jaina,” Jacen warned, glancing over at his sister.

“What, you want me to sugarcoat it?” Jaina raised an eyebrow. “Was I devastated when Jag died? Weren’t you with Tenel Ka? Mom with Dad? Luke with Mara? We’ve all experienced loss, and we accepted it. We accepted that death is the end, and that we loved and lost.”

She looked to Rey, her warm brown eyes softening somewhat. “Don’t get me wrong, I understand exactly what you’re going through, and my heart hurts for you. That still doesn’t excuse that you put all of us, including your children and all of my nieces in danger.”

Rey initially bristled at that, wanting to fight back. But she slowly sank back into her chair. She knew they were right, as much as she hated it.

“What’s done is done,” Jacen said. “It’s what we do now that matters.”

“Yes, right.” Anakin sat up straight. “Did the book say anything about how to undo this?”

Tahiri kept flipping through the pages from where she perched on the arm of Anakin’s chair. “No, seems they weren’t too worried about you living long enough to undo the spell.”

“What now?” Rey demanded.

“It seems murderous rage towards the one who raised them front the dead is a common reaction,” Tahiri said, finally closing the book. “We’re apparently not much longer to live.”

“No,” Anakin said hoarsely, taking Tahiri’s hand. “I won’t let that happen, I don’t care if he used to be my brother, I’ll kill him first—“

‘“We need to call in the big guns,” Jaina said, standing up.

“Luke?” Rey asked .

“No, we haven’t been able to get in touch with him at all,” Jacen explained. “But we can call our mother.”

Rey tilted her head to the side. “Do you think she can help?”

“She trained alongside Luke, she knows nearly as much as he does,” Jaina assured her. “In fact, last Jacen knew, she was training a friend’s son in magic.”

“Really?” Rey had not realized that the Senator had also practiced witchcraft. She’d just assumed Leia was a white sheep of the bunch.

* * *

Her car arrived in the morning, stirling and white. Out came Leia Organa, dressed all in white. Following her was a man about Ben and Rey’s age, with a leather jacket and a warm smile.

“We came as soon as we could,” he said, approaching where Rey stood on the front porch. “You must be Rey. It’s too bad, that we’re meeting under these circumstances.”

“I agree.” Rey couldn’t help but smile—Poe was certainly charming.

“I hope you don’t mind that I brought help,” Leia said wryly. “I have a feeling that we’ll need help for what comes next.”

“Thank you,” Rey said, wrapping her violet hoodie around herself. It had taken on more wear since she had become sixteen years older, but still fit perfectly, somehow.

“I wasn’t talking about Poe,” Leia said dismissively. “Although he’ll certainly be necessary.”

Rey frowned. “Then who—“

A car she hadn’t recognized in years pulled up into the driveway. Emerging from it was none other than Luke Skywalker.

“Hello, Rey,” he said, some friendliness still there. Even if he looked older, sadder, and a little angry. “I should have known you would be the one to open the book and try that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rey couldn’t stop herself from being defensive.

Luke’s anger dissipated. “You were always so lonely, and when you and Ben left, I worried. . . I worried you wouldn’t have the support network you needed.”

“But I was supposed to be the one who died, not him,” Rey whispered. “I don’t know why I’m here instead.”

Luke and Leia exchanged a knowing look.

“It might be the same reason you would have felt a special pull toward that grimoire,” Leia said.

“What do you mean?”

“She means that we need to talk about your family, Rey,” Luke said with a sigh. “But first, let’s have some breakfast. God knows it’s been a long time since I’ve have had a breakfast in this house.”

“Almost reminds you of when we were kids,” Leia said with a twinkle in her eye.

* * *

Inside the kitchen, Anakin and Jacen had been the ones cooking, the kids already sitting at the table and waiting with their limited patience.

All except for Maura, who stood watching the window that had been sealed with magic.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Rey asked, approaching her teenage daughter.

“Dad’s ghost,” Maura whispered. “He isn’t here.”

Rey and Tahiri exchanged knowing looks. They weren’t about to tell her the real reason why her father was gone, in spirit and in the body.

“He might not have manifested yet,” Tahiri offered. “Some ghosts don’t hang around all the time.”

“I guess so.” Maura clearly didn’t believe her, but something in her eyes revealed that she knew better than to question further. “Can we plant the lavender tree today, then?”

“Technically, we’re still waiting on the permit from the city to bury in the backyard,” Rey explained. “But it will be alright, the body’s in a safe place until we’re ready.”

“Right,” Maura said, glancing at the kitchen counter. “I’m not very hungry— can I go back to bed?”

“Of course, sweetheart.” Rey smiled sadly as her daughter then disappeared up the stairs. She had wanted to bring back Ben not just for herself, but for her daughters, especially Maura.

Poe sat down next to Rey. “So, what are we having?”

* * *

It was later when Luke called the adults into the study, and Rey charged Maura with watching Solana and Allana in the conservatory.

“So this is about my family?” Rey asked, not even bothering to sit down.

“Right to the point, as usual.” Luke laughed. “Rey, what do you know about this family— besides the curse, that is?”

Rey frowned, trying to remember the secrets she had learned the first year she had lived within the Autumn House—and what she had heard across the pond, all those years ago.

“I know that you defeated a dark and powerful sorcerer,” Rey said. “Many of them—the most powerful being a man who called himself Sidious, and his apprentice, Vader.”

Luke nodded. “Anything else?”

“Not really— should I know anything?”

Luke stood, starting to pace around the room. “The book you used belonged to Sidious. He was in reality a senator named Sheev Palpatine who was a secret sorcerer. He had a dark plot to take over the American government and reveal magic to the world. He’d befriended Padme Amidala and Anakin Skywalker, hoping to use our mother’s political influence and our father’s power to do so.”

Rey frowned. The name “Palpatine” sounded familiar to her, somehow.

“Unfortunately, both of our parents were a little too stubborn,” Leia added wryly.

“Palpatine wanted Anakin’s power for himself, so he seduced him to the darkness, preying on his insecurities and worst fears,” Luke continued. “He pitted him against my mentor and his best friend, who killed him in battle.”

Luke stopped, taking in a deep breath. “He then cast a spell to kill our mother, and use her life to resurrect my father. But he wasn’t himself. He was twisted, unnatural.”

“Like Ben became,” Rey realized, a hitch in her breath.

“Yes,” Leia said, her eyes sad, sympathetic towards Rey.

“Vader eventually did come back into his body, but that was rare,” Luke said. “From what I can tell, Ben is no longer himself and is under the control of Palpatine’s ghost— and from my divination, I can detect he now calls himself Kylo Ren. We will need to either kill him a second time or bring him back all the way.”

“But what does this all have to do with my family?” Rey asked.

“I knew almost as soon as I laid eyes on you,” Luke admitted. “You carry their signature, the magic of the. Palpatine family. I have no doubt that Sheev Palpatine was your grandfather.”

Rey blinked. At first, she wanted to deny it— but she knew it, somehow. A dark sorcerer for her grandfather made more sense than she liked to admit.

“We think that was why the curse killed Ben, and not you,” Poe explained, looking from Leia to Rey. “He wouldn’t have wanted his curse to strike down his own bloodline, so it struck down Ben instead.”

Rey thought she would be sick. It had been her fault, that her husband died. It was her fault that he had been raised from the dead as a monster.

“What does the book have to do with all of this?” Tahiri was the one who spoke up.

“The book was taken from Palpatine’s lair by Mara when she escaped shortly after his defeat,” Leia explained. “It was his grimoire, with spells coming all the way from the warlock known as Bane.”

Rey blinked again in surprise. She immediately thought of how she had gone to the necromancy plan right away, despite knowing intuitively that it was wrong, a crime against nature.

“You would have felt an incredible pull to that book, because of your grandfather,” Luke added. “What’s done is done. Now we need to make a plan to lure Kylo Ren back here and put him six feet under.”

“But you brought Vader back,” Rey recalled. “Why can’t we do the same with Ben?”

“Because romantic love won’t bring him back,” Luke said slowly. “It can’t. It’s the love a parent has for their child, that love has a special power you can’t begin to imagine.”

“I can,” Rey reminded him. “I am a mother, you know.”

And you never were, she was about to say, before she remembered the miscarriages, and how Luke and Mara had raised their niece and nephews.

“Then I imagine you would object the most to any plan that would involve bringing Ben truly back,” Luke said. “I refuse to put a child in danger, even if I want Ben back, too.”

“You’re right, we can’t do that,” Rey agreed, albeit reluctantly..

Still, a part of her hoped that she could be enough.


	9. The Coven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Rey must face her husband and her mistakes and the unimaginable happens.

When the moon rose, Rey knew that he was coming for them. There was no logic to it, no visual sign that he was coming, no message in blood or vengeful whisper to the wind. Just a feeling of unease that had washed over the entire Autumn House.

“Are you ready?” Poe asked, approaching from behind.

“As I’ll ever be.” Rey traced the nicks in the wood of the porch railing. She was remembering a winter evening in which she’d been drinking margaritas and she had climbed onto the railing and started walking on it. Ben was begging her to stop, but she’d teased him, telling him that she was fine, that she would always be fine. That was naturally when she tripped and fell right into Ben’s arms.

He’d been so sure that she should have died that night, breaking neck and tumbling into Luke’s rose bushes.

She’d been so stupid over the course of her life, so reckless. And only now was she faced with how truly short it all was.

She knew what the plan was.

She would wait, alone, on this porch for Ben to come. The others were hiding, concealing themselves with spells and the like. As soon as they arrived, it would be a fight, until they got the Skywalker family dagger right through his heart.

A weapon that was meant to fight the magical creatures that brought horror instead of whimsy, it had passed through many hands before resting in a sheath hidden in the back of her blouse. It had been forged for Anakin Skywalker, and it had gone to Luke after his alleged death. It had been lost for a while, only to be wielded by Mara when she found it again. And now it belonged to Rey, for this horrible night.

She had put the children to bed with a grave warning.

“No matter what you see, think, or hear,do not leave this attic tonight,” Rey ordered.

Maura had been miffed earlier that she had to share a room with the younger girls, but her blue eyes were now grave. She resembled her father all too well.

Rey had left them with wards made from salt and rosemary, and the prayer that no matter what happened now,that the children would be left safe and alive. If she died, she felt it was almost justice at this point, considering how she had been Ben’s undoing. But no one else deserved it. Not Tahiri, not Luke, not Leia— no one but Rey.

“Just stick to the plan, and we’ll be here to help you,” Poe promised. “You’re going to do great.”

“Thanks,” Rey muttered in a sardonic tone. It was exactly what every young widow wanted to be good at— putting their husband back in the grave.

Poe then disappeared, leaving Rey seemingly alone in the night.

She leaned against the porch railing again, humming a few bars of a Fleetwood Mac song she liked to dance to with Ben.

When she had the courage to open her eyes again, she saw Kylo Ren right beyond the white picket fence and gate. His yellow eyes glowed like that of a feral animal’s in the dark.

Rey straightened, heart pounding.

With a flick of his wrist, the gate opened for him and the wind began to blow.

Rey clenched her fists and reached to draw the silver sword. Before she could, Kylo Ren pushed her back with a spell. She hit the door hard, and when she scrambled to her feet, he was on the porch. He grabbed the front of her shirt, lifting her off of her feet.

With one well-aimed kick, Rey fell to the ground again and Kylo Ren was doubled-over, teeth gritted.

Rey scrambled to her feet once more and vaulted over the fence, trying to taunt him into the open.

That was when Poe dashed into the action, using the front door as a weapon to send Kylo Ren sprawling. He did not fall to the ground, however, and turned to Poe, seething with anger.

With another spell, Poe went flying off of the porch, nearly missing the rose bushes.

Jacen,Jaina, Anakin, Tahiri, and Jaina’s third husband, Kyp, now took the opportunity to appear.

Jaina helped Poe get back on his feet while Tahiri readied her shotgun, aiming directly for Kylo Ren’s heart. There was only a box of silver ammo, but she was determined to make it count. She took fire, but Kylo Ren was ready. It dissolved into nothing,hitting a shield of magic that rippled blood-red surrounding Kylo Ren.

Jacen and Anakin tried to get the jump on him, but in a straight magic fight, Kylo Ren was proving stronger than his brothers combined with Palpatine augmenting his powers.

Rey tried to run at him again, but the silver sword fell out of her hands, flung away by a wayward spell.

The three witches dueled Kylo Ren with their magic furiously, only just matching him in a flurry of sparks and spells.

It was then that the door opened again, with Maura standing there in an oversized t-shirt and sweatpants.

“Maura, get back inside the house!” Rey screamed. In her distraction, she didn’t see the spell coming for her, and she fell screaming off of the porch, seeing nothing more.

* * *

Maura blinked—she’d heard the commotion downstairs, and despite her mother’s warnings, had to see for herself what. Was going on.

Little did she expect to see her dead father with glowing evil eyes, fighting the rest of the family.

Upon hearing her mother’s scream, she knew what she had to do—her eyes found the silver sword all too easily.

She dashed across the porch, grabbing the silver sword while Anakin and Jacen had the monster that was once her father distracted.

When she held it in her hands, it was like second nature. She instantly felt braver.

“Hey you!” Maura shouted. “I don’t care if you used to be my dad— don’t hurt my family!”

At the sound of Maura’s voice, Kylo Ren froze. The whole world seemed to stop within that moment. He turned, and his eyes glitched between yellow and brown for a moment— before settling into ordinary, beautifully mundane hazel. Confusion colored his face.

“Maura?”

Maura didn’t dare drop her defensive stance. “Is this a trick?”

He reached a hand to the scar on his face, where the car had hit him, the place where Rey could not heal.

“I don’t. . . I don’t think so. . . ”

He turned and saw Rey unconscious off of the porch. Without abandon, he ran to her, and started to whisper, tried to wake her up.

It was Anakin that got to their side first.

“She’s going to be okay,” Anakin declared, placing two fingers on the base of Rey’s neck. He looked from Rey to Ben. “And I guess you are, too.”

Ben couldn’t help but smile. It was tentative and small, but it was a promise of what was to come.

Maura slowly lowered the sword. It was unbelievable, incredible what had happened before her. It was nothing short of a miracle.

But if there was one thing Maura knew, as does anyone that has magic in their veins, it was that miracles are more common and more wonderful than most mortals dream.


	10. The Lavender Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a curse is broken and a lesson is learned.

The next few days were spent in recovery. Rey woke up not long after Ben carried her into the house. For her, it was like the past three nights had been some terrible dream. Leia, for once, took time off from the Senate to tend to her family, and Poe stayed as well.

The following days were spent drinking tea on the porch, practicing a little practical magic, and talking about all of the things that they had once kept close to the chest. Feelings of abandonment, resentment, loss and fear. These feelings that had always been there, that had always simmered beneath the surface as the poison that lurked within the walls of the Autumn House.

But what was also discussed was love. The love that parents held for their children, brothers for their sisters, and the love carried by spouses living and dead. The love that had overpowered death itself, and curses. The love that they concluded, at the end of the week, must have broken the curse.

It was not the dramatic event that Ben had dreamed of as a child, when he had fantasized breaking the curse and bringing back his father. There were no flashing lights, no triumphant music. There wasn’t even the casting of any specific spell.

At first, there had been no reason to suspect that any of it had changed. But there was a feeling, that Ben and the other Skywalkers came to detect, that told them as much. The curse was gone, broken by what had happened under the moonlight.

The full details were something Luke couldn’t even begin to guess at. Perhaps the position of the moon helped, or the effort of the entire family to let Ben come to rest once more, a love expressed through sacrifices on everyone’s behalf. Perhaps it was purely just the love of a daughter. Perhaps it was Palpatine’s power overdone twice. No one would know for sure what had done it,what had finally broken the curse that had haunted the Skywalker for three generations.

It didn’t matter, they eventually decided. All that mattered now was that the curse was broken and that they had each other now. And they were going to make it count.

On the seventh day, the family finally received the permit to bury in the backyard. While there was no one to bury, they were able to put in the lavender tree Rey had planned to plant for Ben’s grave, and they created a gravestone all the same. But instead of reading Ben’s name, it read all the names of those who were buried elsewhere, all who had succumbed to the Skywalker curse.

It was a sunny day, and the wind from the beach had carried itself further onto the island, to the Autumn House. It was just like the day Han died.

Maura was still in the sun, as they stood and observed the monument to the curse.

“I can see them,” she declared. “They’re all here. And they have a message for all of you. ‘I love you.’”

Ben smiled. “I know.”

There were many things Ben now knew, because of his childhood in the Autumn House.

Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.

And when you do, hold your loved ones close, and live for today.


End file.
